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July 04, 2009

Sealinked

Impressions of a first trip using the Bandra-Worli Sealink on Friday night.

1) It's a simply beautiful bridge. No question. Especially with the slight drizzle and the lights picking out the raindrops, the white cables stretching skywards at ever-steeper angles as we drove, the imposing height of the main towers.

2) Left home 10pm, used Sealink, reached destination in Grant Road 1050pm. Left Grant Road 1103pm, used Tulsi Pipe Road (i.e. not the Sealink), got home 1135pm.

50 minutes using the Sealink, 32 minutes not using it.

3) Enormous traffic jam entering Sealink at Bandra end, both at about 1010 when we got on, and at 1130 when we neared it on our return. I mean, on our return we could see the traffic backed up till across Mahim Creek: easily a couple of km before the bridge.

4) Time on Sealink itself: 25 minutes.

5) Worli seaface exit is just crazy. I'm repeating myself, but to go south, you turn north off the bridge and drive to the next roundabout. Three choices there.

* Go pretty much straight to continue towards the northern parts of the city. Predictably, only a few cars took that route (why would you take the Sealink south to Worli only to head back north?).

* Take the 135-degree turn onto Pochkhanawala Road to go south. This relatively narrow road will carry pretty much all the morning rush-hour traffic off the bridge.

* Take the 180-degree turn to proceed south, this along Worli Seaface. We took this. But this one is closed between 830am and 1130am, i.e. during the morning rush-hour.

6) Plenty of people, at both ends of the bridge and on it, trying to make U-turns. Messes up traffic no end, but they didn't seem too concerned.